Share this:

Carmen’s Restaurant — more recently known as SB40 — is one of the lesser known restaurants around the Embarcadero and ballpark areas, but it’s got a loyal following. Carmen’s has been around for decades in various places in the area, starting from a now-defunct shack overlooking Mission Creek to its current environs on Pier 40, right on the Embarcadero.

Now, LiveSOMA has a great piece detailing the murky future of the family-owned Filipino-American restaurant, which might not see another Giants baseball season if it can’t come to a new lease agreement with its landlords (the Port of San Francisco) by next April.

SB40 actually applied for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but was working with and making payments to the SF Redevelopment Agency (SFRA), which was overseeing Pier 40. Now that the Redevelopment Agency has dissolved, the lease has gone under the jurisdiction of the Port. So far, things don’t look good for the future of Carmen’s under the Port control. But it’s not the end of the lease that is riling up Carmen’s owners; it’s the feeling that they are getting booting without any possibility of reapplying or renewing:

The Port of SF does not think they need to honor the existing agreement that had been drawn up between the SFRA and Carmen’s and they will not even begin to accept it without negotiating in a few amendments that would make renewal of the lease in April practically impossible for Carmen’s.

Read the whole tale at LiveSOMA. And stay tuned for more on the future of the restaurant.